Did Gianni Versace die over his Mob debts?

Fashion designer Gianni Versace was murdered over debts he had with the Mafia, which also tried to steal his ashes to try to blackmail his family, a supergrass has claimed.

Suspicious death: Gianni Versace

Giuseppe Di Bella, a former member of the Calabrian Mafia known as the ’Ndrangheta, says in a new book that Versace was killed over debts he had with the Godfathers,

The 50-year-old was shot on the steps of his Miami apartment in 1997 by serial killer Andrew Cunanan, who later committed suicide.

In the book, Metastasi, Di Bella says Versace was being used by Godfather Paolo De Stefano to launder money.

The ’Ndrangheta is lesser known than its Sicilian counterparts but, according to Italian police, is ‘more powerful, more lucrative and more ruthless.’ It is said to be the link between the South American drug cartels controlling the supply of cocaine to Europe and makes £37billion a year.

In the book, Di Bella says: ‘There were rivers of money from drugs, extortion, protection rackets, loan sharking, mountains of money and it had to be made clean. Bars, restaurants, property and luxury goods were used but also clean businesses like that of Versace.’ He also claimed the ’Ndrangheta plotted to steal Versace’s ashes on New Year’s Eve in 1997 but it was never carried out.

Yesterday, the anti-Mafia department in Rome said it had opened a case to investigate the claims.

However, the Versace family said in a statement: ‘The declarations from the informer are false and shameful.’